BJP maintains its sway in Udupi district by winning all five Assembly seats

The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) candidates emerged victorious in all the five Assembly constituencies of Udupi district in the results declared on May 13, Saturday, like in the 2018 elections.

The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) candidates emerged victorious in all the five Assembly constituencies of Udupi district in the results declared on May 13, Saturday, like in the 2018 elections.

Though four among the five BJP MLAs were new to Assembly elections, they pulled out the victory with comfortable margins. The BJP had replaced B.M. Sukumar Shetty with Gururaj Shetty Gantihole in Byndoor, fielded A. Kiran Kumar Kodgi in the place of Halady Srinivas Shetty, who had announced electoral retirement in Kundapura, replaced K. Raghupathi Bhat with Yashpal A. Suvarna in Udupi and Lalaji R. Mendon with Gurme Suresh Shetty in Kaup.

While two of the four candidates from the Congress too were new faces — Molahalli Dinesh Hegde in Kundapura and Prasadraj Kanchan in Udupi, the other two — K. Gopal Poojary in Byndoor and Vinay Kumar Sorake in Kaup — were old horses. Mr. Sorake had been a Minister too in the earlier Congress governments. Minister V. Sunil Kumar was the lone old face in Karkala, who defeated first-time contender Muniyalu Uday Shetty in a pitched electoral battle.

Initially trailing to Mr. Poojary, BJP candidate Gantihole mustered up votes as the counting rounds progressed and defeated the four-time MLA with a margin of 16,153 votes. In the 2018 polls, Mr. Sukumar Shetty had defeated Mr. Poojary with a margin of 24,393 votes.

A confidant of Halady Srinivas Shetty, Mr. Kodgi defeated Mr. Hegde by a margin of 41,556 votes in Kundapura. Mr. Shetty had defeated Mallyadi Shivarama Shetty with a margin of 56,405 votes in 2018. Interestingly, both Mr. Shetty in 2018 and Mr. Kodgi in 2023, polled fancy number votes, 1,03,434 and 1,02,424.

The BJP National Backward Classes Morcha General Secretary Yashpal Suvarna, also the president of the Dakshina Kannada and Udupi District Fish Marketing Federation, defeated automobile entrepreneur Prasadraj Kanchan of the Congress by a margin of 32,776 votes. K. Raghupathi Bhat of the BJP had defeated Pramod Madhwaraj of the Congress (then) by a margin of 12,044 votes in 2018.

Entrepreneur Gurme Suresh Shetty defeated veteran politician Vinay Kumar Sorake from the Congress with a margin of 13,004 votes. The victory margin of Lalaji R. Mendon of the BJP against Mr. Sorake was 11,917 votes in 2018. Mr. Sunil Kumar, who had defeated Late K. Gopal Bhandary of the Congress by a margin of 42,566 votes in 2018, could defeat Mr. Uday Shetty with a small margin of 4,602 votes. this time.